Actually, Chris originally designed for the previously fallen body to stand up again, to demonstrate that there was indeed a Supernatural Force. That's why he was researching the corpse's configuration with Shiller, aiming to achieve the highest impact level when the body stands, followed by giving Stark a close-up of fear and desperation, and that would be about it.
But ever since discovering the basement Thunder Grasshopper, the prior plans could all be scrapped. No need for standing bodies or horror expressions. Just give that Monster a one-second panoramic shot, then follow with a close-up of a raised hand.
Just like that, a horror shot that could enter the top ten in Human race film history was born.
The prowess of the Human race in horror shots far surpasses other genre shots. The smaller the circle, the more divine the people, and the horror movie circle is no different.
Striking at the inner fear of the Human race requires talent, and a very rare talent at that. It demands feeling others' fears, facing one's own fears directly, without being overwhelmed, and presenting everything in a logical manner, which is incredibly challenging.
Therefore, horror film directors are experts at crafting various horror shots, especially psychological horror, which doesn't rely on blood or severed limbs, nor jump scares, but purely uses content and composition to frighten.
The final shot Chris took cannot really be said to be his. It was taken from the footage captured when Venom and Eddie dropped the camera accidentally. The shaky frame, along with the fleeting shadow of the Monster, became art achieving greatness inadvertently.
Ninety percent of the positive reviews in the horror film community for this movie come from the final shot. Chris also gained the nickname "Horror Movie Genius," and due to his previous experience in filming cozy comedies, people were more willing to call him a "Dual Talent."
Many were curious about where Chris got his inspiration. Some audience members wanted to visit the set and see the props firsthand to experience the thrill that strikes the Soul. Of course, all was declined.
The audience isn't so easily satisfied. Soon, the Thunder Grasshopper became the most trending aspect of the movie, even overshadowing Stark's eyes. For a time, fan creations regarding it flooded the internet.
There's a saying that people don't tire when doing bad things. If you ask them to praise how beautiful Stark's eyes are or how brilliant the film's reasoning, they might be too lazy to bother. But if you give them the Thunder Grasshopper to scare others, they'll share it on all platforms.
In just a few seconds of footage, they managed to uncover countless details, even creating its illustrations and models.
Stark couldn't describe to anyone how he felt, opening his phone early in the morning intending to swipe through TikTok, only to be greeted by a disassembly diagram of Thunder Grasshopper components.
Thanks to 3D printing, almost nothing in the world is impossible to make. Some people made models according to the designs, even creating modular ones, which unexpectedly became the film's best-selling merchandise. Buyers even assembled while reviewing, and anyone who browsed content related to the movie found this thing dominating their homepages, much like Stark.
Of course, there were plenty of cute cartoon versions too. Some even turned this thing into garlands worn on various R-rated characters' heads. Others created crossover artwork with diverse horror and thriller Monsters, like Alien, SCP, and Cthulhu Mythos.
And since the way this thing achieves horror and thrill is actually in its combination method, many started mixing their favorite Monster images this way, quickly creating a "Grasshopper cosmos."
In this cosmos setting, whether it's Humans, animals, or any Supernatural Force Monsters, they all possess similar circular structures. They have societies, different divisions of labor, and culture. Its popularity rivals those traditional horror concepts.
Stark quit the internet.
His personal film became a hit, he should be happy. But rising to fame in this manner, he truly didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Yet Stark, with his prideful nature, endured the suffering and remarked to Greed, "Perhaps we could invite another you for a meal, to express our gratitude."
"You seem more like preparing to perform what 'laughing is uglier than crying' really means." Greed shook his head helplessly, saying, "Fear is fear, dislike is dislike, why force yourself?"
"Whether intentional or not, he indeed helped me," Stark said, "In matters like these, I only look at the results. I will also strive to help him. Do you know if there's anything he desires?"
Stark had improved quite a bit, though he still didn't believe Arrogant and Greed were the same person, at least treating Arrogant as an independent individual, he could reluctantly accept dealing with him.
"Speaking of which, he does have a concern," Greed said, "He wants to improve Gotham University's educational conditions, wishing to enlist some scientists as Professors. Can you assist with this?"
Stark paused his hand and said, "Trying to recruit scientists from here? But wouldn't they be unwilling to go?"
Greed briefly explained Arrogant's plan. However, Stark's focus wasn't on Professors; he said, "I always feel he's a bit too old-fashioned. Has he considered that Gotham University's ranking won't rise due to poor management?"
Greed glanced at him, signaling to elaborate. Stark, conversely, looked at him with suspicion, "Aren't you the business expert? Didn't you notice?"
"I'm still not used to treating schools as companies," Greed simply said, prompting greater skepticism from Stark.
"What is a school if not a company? If not a company, where's the board? Even state universities or community colleges require sponsorship. Without proper management, they'll soon shut down."
"Seems that's the case," Greed said, "But why do you think it's due to mismanagement?"
"You both believe the lousy reputation of Gotham deterred teachers and students, yet the fact is teaching and attending school are akin to licking the blade's edge. Risky business finds takers; unprofitable business doesn't."
"They don't come, not because Gotham is frightening, but because the benefits they can get from the school can't outweigh that fear. Otherwise, even if it were a mountain of knives and a sea of flames, they would give it a try. How about offering a loan interest rate below 4%?" Stark proposed a plan, "Get rid of the regular repayment restrictions for some people, allow early repayment, and then increase some scholarships?"
"If it were before, it should work well," Greed said, "But now, Brainiac has already waived all university tuition fees. Trying to solve it from the tuition angle is probably not feasible."
"This is troublesome." Stark frowned, "Then we can only try our best to recruit renowned professors, attract those professors who bring along their graduate and PhD resources, and create some decent projects, which naturally will attract students."
"Arrogance is planning to do just that."
"But he hasn't realized the core of the problem." Stark shook his head, "Professors and students are the same, even facing more complicated problems. They don't come not because it's dangerous here, but because the benefits they can get aren't worth the risk."
"Gotham University surely doesn't lack funds, which proves there's a significant problem with the university's teaching system and project management. This leads to funds not being used in useful places and naturally doesn't attract expert scholars."
"This I'm indeed not very familiar with," Greed said, "I teach psychology, and it's theoretical psychology, basically doesn't require experiments, so I don't know how most experimental projects operate."
Stark was clearly still uncomfortable with him referring to matters concerning Arrogance as "I," but he tried to digest it and then said, "I'm afraid this is the fundamental way to solve the problem. Of course, I'm just mentioning it. Asking me to go to Gotham is impossible."
Greed naturally knew that someone like Stark is entirely unsuitable for Gotham. His basic process there would be: land, get frightened, open the hand cannon, and fire.
Gotham somewhat counts as a historic city and wants to develop tourism, but it can't endure his missile bombardment. But to have someone like this in Gotham not get scared is also impossible. Better not to go there now at all.
"I'll remind him," Greed said, "This is indeed a valuable suggestion; you must have helped him."
"Seeing that it's your face," Stark pouted.
"It seems our birthday surprise wasn't prepared in vain," Greed shook his head and laughed.
"Speaking of which, I just..." Stark seemed a bit irritated, "You shouldn't have come at that time, I wasn't in good shape at all, not even the energy to pretend."
"We didn't just start preparing then."
"We certainly didn't only start preparing now," Natasha removed the confetti fragment from her head, put the confetti cannon aside, and said, "We started from the day the movie began filming. Our collective delay was only because there was a small issue with the cake, but it's fixed now."
Soon, the birthday song echoed in the empty screening room. A large two-tier cake was pushed out, and everyone put the birthday hat on Stark's head.
Stark seemed not fully recovered yet. After the movie ended, the lights didn't turn on for a long time, and he thought the lights were broken. Unexpectedly, the music suddenly started. Natasha and Shiller each holding a confetti cannon pulled the trigger and shouted, "Happy Birthday!! Tony!!"
Only then did Stark realize that today was his birthday. Filming the movie was really busy, and then he got sick, completely forgetting about this.
Then came Pepper holding Little Morgan walking out from backstage. They hadn't watched the movie because it's too highly rated, Little Morgan couldn't watch, and only came over now.
"Oh, thank you!" Stark was indeed very surprised. He wondered why normally punctual people were all late, even Steve was quite late, which was unlike them.
His friends were particularly thoughtful about his matters. To satisfy his OCD, almost everyone would arrive a few minutes before the agreed time, neither too early nor too late, so it wouldn't easily trigger his anxiety. But this time they were all late by more than ten minutes, it turned out they went to prepare a birthday surprise for him.
"Come on, cut the cake," Steve called the others. Spider-Man came from all directions, and everyone gathered around. Stark was escorted to the cake.
"What's with the cake? What went wrong?" Stark still asked.
"Today suddenly warmed up, don't know why the chocolate glaze on top melted," Natasha sighed and said, "Chocolate smeared everywhere, dirty and ugly, you surely couldn't stand it. We had to scrape off the layer of cream and remake the glaze."
"I made it," Miles stepped out and said, "I just learned to make cakes, maybe didn't do it very well, but it's the best I could do."
Stark looked down at the cake. It wasn't the retro floral design style but a rather simple shape, a light blue color. At the center, in cute rounded English script it read "Happy Birthday to the Best Tony."
Stark subconsciously looked at the glaze. The outer circle of the top layer of the cake had chocolate flowing down naturally as decoration. Though no modification traces were seen, the shape of that circle and the lines of flowing chocolate immediately made Stark think of the last few seconds of the movie.
Stark fell asleep immediately.